2And wilt swear: ‘As the Lord liveth’In truth, in justice, and in righteousness;Then shall the nations bless themselves by Him,And in Him shall they glory.

3For thus saith the Lord to the men of Judah and to Jerusalem:Break up for you a fallow ground,And sow not among thorns.

4Circumcise yourselves to the Lord,And take away the foreskins of your heart,Ye men of Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem;Lest My fury go forth like fire,And burn that none can quench it,Because of the evil of your doings.

5Declare ye in Judah, and publish in Jerusalem,And say: ‘Blow ye the horn in the land’;Cry aloud and say:‘Assemble yourselves, and let us go into the fortified cities.’

6Set up a standard toward Zion;Put yourselves under covert, stay not;For I will bring evil from the north,And a great destruction.

7A lion is gone up from his thicket,And a destroyer of nationsIs set out, gone forth from his place;To make thy land desolate,That thy cities be laid waste, without inhabitant.

8For this gird you with sackcloth,Lament and wail;For the fierce anger of the LordIs not turned back from us.

9And it shall come to pass at that day,Saith the Lord,That the heart of the king shall fail,And the heart of the princes;And the priests shall be astonished, And the prophets shall wonder.

31For I have heard a voice as of a woman in travail,The anguish as of her that bringeth forth her first child,The voice of the daughter of Zion, that gaspeth for breath,That spreadeth her hands:‘Woe is me, now! for my soul faintethBefore the murderers.’